


and I'll rise like an ember in your name

by ohmcgee



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, thomas and martha live
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-11 00:08:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7014268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmcgee/pseuds/ohmcgee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason was his home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and I'll rise like an ember in your name

**Author's Note:**

> written for the au prompt: Bruce's parents never died

"I've got," Bruce tries to say in between Jason kissing his neck, his jaw, licking the corners of his mouth as he squirms on top of him. "-- to get to work."

"Bullshit," Jay mutters "You don't gotta do anything except kiss me."

Bruce bites back his grin. "I think the company would disagree with that statement."

"Screw 'em," Jay says, kissing his way down Bruce's chest. His mouth is warm, his tongue wet when it drags down his stomach. "You're the boss. What are they gonna do?"

"Jay," Bruce says, running his fingers through Jason's hair. "This week is --"

"B," Jason says, splaying his hands out across Bruce's ribs and looking down at him with those incredibly blue eyes. "All you've been doing is working. I never get to see you anymore. I _miss_ you."

Bruce sighs and drags Jason down to kiss him, slow and easy, like it always is, like it’s been since the day Bruce caught him trying to break into his Lexus.

"How about we take the jet," Bruce murmurs next to his ear, tracing designs in between Jason's shoulder blades. "Go see that show in Chicago you've been dying to see?"

Jason pulls back and gives him a suspicious look. "Really?"

"Of course," Bruce smiles, reaches up to cup Jason's jaw, brush his thumb over his mouth. "I'd do anything for you."

 

: : :

 

There's a letter waiting for Jason when they return from their trip. He shows it to Bruce after he opens it, his mouth dry, hands shaking. 

"It's," Jason says. "It's my mom. She -- she needs my help."

Bruce doesn't say _don't go_ , he doesn't say all the things he thinks: that this could be a trap somehow, that it's curious that his mother's waited this whole time to contact him or how she even found his address, he doesn't say that he just has a _bad feeling_ about all of this. He just gives him a small smile and hugs Jason tight, kisses the top of his head.

"Then we'll help her," he says. "Together."

 

: : :

 

They fly to Ethiopia on one of Bruce's private jets, Jason talking nervously and wringing his hands the entire way until Bruce pulls him into his lap and strokes his hair and Jay finally falls asleep. 

They book a hotel as soon as they land and in the morning they decide they'll head out and look for her. 

"Thank you for doing this," Jay says when he climbs on top of Bruce that night. "For coming with me."

"I'd do anything for you," Bruce says, kissing Jason until they have to break for air. "Do you know why that is?"

Jason kisses him back this time, kisses him harder, hungrier, and Bruce strips his shirt off, sits up so Jason can strip him of his own. After that it's a whirlwind, clawing at each other’s clothes like Jason can't wait another second to have Bruce inside of him. 

He sinks down on Bruce at first, but Bruce rolls them so he can have Jason beneath him, so he can kiss Jason while he buries himself inside of him and swallow the cries he lets out every time Bruce thrusts into him. 

"Do you love me?" Jason asks, his small hands framing Bruce's face, and Bruce grabs his hips and hauls Jason up into his lap, presses their foreheads together.

"More than anything," Bruce says and holds Jason tight as he comes for him. 

 

: : :

 

Bruce wakes up to a cold bed and an empty space where Jason had been curled next to him, a note that says _Sorry, B. This is just too dangerous for you suit types. Enjoy room service. Back soon -- Jay._

Bruce swallows down the bile in his throat and pulls some clothes on, grabs his wallet and all but runs out of the hotel to find him. 

 

: : :

 

Four hours later Bruce finds him. 

He holds Jason's body in his arms, kisses his forehead. He pleads with him to wake up, he whispers _please_ and _no_. He screams so loud the earth shakes beneath him and the people standing around look frightened of him. 

"Sir," one of the EMT's says. "We...we need to take the body."

_The body._

"He's not a _body_ ," Bruce says, his body shaking from everything he's trying to hold back. "His name is Jason. He loved chili dogs and -- and Neapolitan ice cream. He --"

There's a hand on his shoulder and Bruce looks up.

"Master Bruce," Alfred says. Bruce vaguely remembers calling him, knowing Alfred would come whenever he needed him, wherever. His parents are in Spain somewhere and they never even knew about Jason. "Let's take him home."

Home, Bruce thinks. 

Jason was his home.

 

: : :

 

“It was the Joker,” Bruce says on the plane ride home. “The psychopath that escaped Arkham awhile back. He’s from Gotham, Alfred.”

“What was he doing all the way in Ethiopia then?” Alfred asks, offering Bruce a cup of tea -- chamomile with milk, the same he used to give him as a child when he couldn’t sleep. 

Bruce doesn’t think he’ll ever sleep again. 

“I’m not sure,” Bruce says. “But I promise you. I will find out.”

 

: : :

 

“Your mother is thinking of moving to Italy,” Bruce’s father says over Sunday dinner. “There’s this villa in Tuscany she’s been talking nonstop about every since I volunteered their last year. What do you think?”

Bruce looks up from the plate of food he hasn’t touched. “Why does it matter what I think?”

“Well,” Thomas says. “We’d need someone to look after the manor. I know you love your place in the city, Bruce, but Wayne Manor has been in our family for generations and we don't want to just leave it here to rot. Will you at least think about it?”

“Sure,” Bruce says, finishing off another glass of scotch. “I’ll think about it.”

 

: : :

 

After dinner Bruce goes for a walk around the grounds. He hasn’t spent much time here except for the occasional dinner since he was a boy, but things haven’t changed that much. He understands why they want someone to stay here while they’re gone though, the place must require a ton of upkeep. And it’s true, he did love his penthouse in the city. The manor is miles out into the country away from anything. You can’t even get a pizza delivered out this far. 

But that was before --

Before everything stopped having meaning. 

He hasn’t even set foot in the penthouse since he’s been back. He’s been staying a hotel in the city. Every inch of the penthouse is covered in Jason; his clothes, his painting, his books scattered over every surface. The sheets in the bed will still smell like him and --

Bruce stumbles over a root somewhere on the back of the property, goes down hard on both knees. Then it’s like the ground just gives way and he’s falling, falls so long and so hard that it knocks him out for a few moments. When he comes to he’s in complete darkness and it takes his eyes a moment to adjust, but when he can he takes his phone out of his pocket and uses the flashlight on it to look around. 

A bat flies past his head, screeching next to his ear, and Bruce drops his phone, hearing the screen crack. After that there’s a swarm of them, buzzing past his head and flying around him, screeching their high pitched screeches next to his ears until finally, after what feels like forever, it just stops. 

Bruce uses his phone again to look around. He’s not just in some sinkhole. The place is vast, enormous -- it’s an actual cave that no one ever knew was here. 

It takes him three hours, but Bruce finally climbs out, falling and trying again, cutting and scraping his hands and knees using the roots to pull himself up, but finally he climbs out of the hole he fell through, covered in dirt and blood, and heads back to the manor. 

His mother look aghast when she sees him. “Bruce what on earth --”

“I’ll take it,” he says. “I’ll move to the manor.”

 

: : :

 

Bruce’s parents are moved out and headed to Italy by the end of the month. He shows Alfred the cave the first night they’re there and tells him his plans. 

Alfred stares at him for a long minute before he says, “Oh dear. You’re actually serious, aren’t you?”

Bruce thought about not telling Alfred and trying to keep it a secret, but he knows he’s going to need at least one person’s help and Alfred is the person he trusts most in this world now. 

“I am,” Bruce says. “He’ll pay for what he’s done, Alfred. All of it.”

“How?” Alfred asks. “Just how are you going to stop a madman?”

“Oh,” Bruce says. “I have a few ideas.”


End file.
